Photo by CC user Bill Branson, National Cancer Institute and via http://www.freestockphotos.biz/
For a long time only large scale businesses could afford a flashy, high tech business phone system. With the development of new technologies along with faster broadband speeds, smaller businesses can now access advanced phone system features within their business at an affordable price by using a Hosted PBX Phone System.
Traditionally, phone system providers and telephone service providers would be completely separate companies. As time progressed, innovative service providers have joined forces with phone system providers to develop new ways for their clients to communicate and from there, the Cloud based Hosted PBX phone system was born.
This Hosted PBX innovation came from continued growth within the small business sector and now means that SME sized businesses can now access the various features previously only available on enterprise sized phone systems. These features can include virtual extensions, automatic greetings, music on hold, rerouting options etc. A Hosted PBX is an alternative to the standard PSTN or ISDN services, they are far more reliable, cheaper to run and have scalability to match any sized business.
There are many advantages of moving to a Host PBX Phone System. Many companies have now caught on to the trend and once they have moved across they have been able to further grow their business. It’s vital that when looking to move to a Hosted PBX system, the correct research has been taken to ensure the business chooses a provider that will work with them. It’s also important that you work with your provider to ensure you are utilizing as many benefits are possible.
- Ability to be able to retain business phone numbers
If one of your concerns if that you can’t keep your numbers, you have nothing to be fearful of. The porting abilities of Hosted PBX allow you to keep all the original business numbers. This is a massive positive and one that is ensures your business continues to operate without any disruptions.
- Flexibility
The ability to be flexible is now common practice with well-run SME’s, not all businesses are restricted to the office, many have business development employees and some may even work from home, interstate and or at international destinations. A Hosted PBX System enables you and your employees to work from anywhere in the world, as long as there is an internet connection they will be able to connect to the businesses cloud system, it’s just as easy and simple as if you or your employee was at their desk.
- Features
A Hosted PBX System has a variety of features that can greatly benefit you and your business. There are many features such as music on hold, find me routing, rerouting of numbers, reliable connections and voicemail to email just to name a few. The music on hold function can be a real asset to your business, it not only keeps your customers stimulated, it allows you to use the function to further inform your clients about opening times, updates and or specials.
- Credibility
If your company is considered to be creditable, it means your business is respected. Credibility is important for any company, you want clients and other businesses to recommend you to other people, ensuring your phone system is reliable means that you can focus on the fundamentals of the business and therefore be able to communicate with other clients or businesses without the hassle of unreliable connections.
- A Community Presence
A benefit of a Host PBX system is that it enables you to setup as many different numbers as you want, all these numbers will then be routed to the same cloud based phone system that your company uses. What this means is that is doesn’t matter where in the world you are or the customer, you are giving your business a local feel to the phone call and also changes your customers thought process when dialing or receiving calls from a local number.
- What happens if the system hypothetically goes down?
In the unlikely event that the system does go down, a hosted PBX System has built in measures to ensure your business continues to run, the most common solution is automatically forward calls to another network and or device, such as a mobile phone or backup PSTN service. Whilst shopping around for a provider, it is highly recommended what other back up measures are offered if and or when there is a total internet failure.
- Scalability
One of the major benefits of a Hosted PBX System is that it is scalable and therefore able to grow with your business. The larger your business grows all you will need to do is just order more phones and then just add them to your plan. If you move offices all you need to do is just grab your phones, move them to the new destination, as long as there is a live internet connection of course! Alternatively, if the business downgrades you can remove the extensions. Above all this is a cost effective alternative and hassle free compared to degrading PSTN lines.